A real Christmas tree at last!

Scott and I have been married for 16 years.  The first 6 years of our marriage we decorated a ficus tree with lights and a few decorations and called it our Christmas tree.  Finally, when Holly was 5 we got a artificial Christmas tree.  This year I was determined to get a real tree and not just from a tree lot, from a Christmas tree farm.  I had heard good reviews of a Christmas tree farm in North Bend called Christmas Creek.   So on the Saturday after Thanksgiving we all packed into the van and drove there.  Luckily it was a dry day. 

 

 

 The kids had fun running around through the Christmas trees, it was like a Christmas tree maze.

 Megan thought we should get this cute little tree.

 But we finally decided on this 8 foot Douglas Fir.

Nathan and Scott used one of the provided saws and cut it down.

 We drove it down the hill to "Santa's shop" where a strong man shook our tree to remove dead branches and bugs, and then sent it through the bailer machine.

Then he tied the tree to our van's roof.  We've had this van for 8 years and this was the first time we have ever used the rooftop rack.  Yes, it is about time!

 Hayrides come complementary with visiting the tree farm so me and the girls went for a ride.

Then we visited Santa's shop and got to see Santa.  He looked like the real thing and was very sweet with all of our kids.

 We successfully mounted the tree at home.  We have found about 5 little black spiders but no squirrels so all is good.  I thought getting the live tree was lots of fun.  Maybe we'll do it again next year!

Nathan was my big helper this Thanksgiving.  He was very good at mixing the ingredients for the rolls.  I contributed rolls and a jello salad to the meal.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house and about 40 people attended. 

The roll dough sat in the fridge for one night and then on Thanksgiving morning I rolled it out and into crescent shapes.

Here are the completed rolls ready to eat and my cute big girls.

 My Grandma Moulton (who is 92 years old) was there with us for Thanksgiving making the day extra special.

 My mom had her house decorated beautifully and the tables were set so nicely too.  We all enjoyed the candy favors left at the places.  We had three tables set up.  Two for adults and one for all the children.

 This is the grandchild table.  They were served first and then the adults got their food.

 There were lots of yummy pies for dessert.  My kids liked the peanut butter pie the best.  It was almost as good as the cute turkey cupcakes we had this week for FHE.  Holly decorated these for us.

Today I am thankful that

*So many of our relatives live nearby.  It was fun to see the Moulton relatives yesterday and the Standage ones today.
*Holly took down all the Thanksgiving decorations and dusted so our house would be ready to decorate for Christmas.
*We have so many fun Christmas shows to watch.  I love our DVR and the Hallmark channel.  I am a sucker for predictable love stories.
*I got to read a fun book on Thanksgiving called The Wedding Bargain by Agnew Turnbull.  It was a pretty quick read and a very interesting story.  Thanks Jill for the book recomendation.

Expose and bond

This week started out with a trip to the Oral surgeon.  Holly has an impacted tooth (an adult tooth stuck up in her gums on top of another tooth that wouldn't come down).  Since we had Monday off of school for Veteran's day it was the perfect day to do the procedure.  I went with Holly to the oral surgeon to get her tooth exposed and bonded.  She was put to sleep and then the surgeon opened her gum, attached a gold bracket and chain to her impacted tooth, and then stitched her up.  I got a bit  queasy being in the room when Holly got her IV and was put to sleep but other than that everything went well.  Holly took it easy for the rest of the day and tried to get in as many naps as she could during the week.  Holly was on several medicines for pain and to prevent infection and told me "this is probubly the most medicine I have ever had".   The gold chain will be attached to Holly's braces and slowly tightened to pull the impacted tooth down. 

 

I found this on facebook and thought it was so true.  Most weeks I am lucky to just get the laundry done, the lunches packed, dinner made, and grocery shopping done. 

I did get out the hot chocolate and bought some candy canes.  It has been such cold dreary weather, I figured hot chocolate was in order.

 Melissa created a cool caterpillar.

 Nathan made this fun habitat at preschool for a plastic lizard. 

 Nathan took several naps which is always appreciated.

I was able to help out in Melissa's class with the ToyMaker Workshop.  It was an in-house field trip.  The kids made boats out of wood, nails and rubber bands.

 And floated them in water outside.

 Holly helped make dinner one night (homemade mac and cheese)

 and Emily set the table.

Megan continues to practice her cartwheels every day and she always asks me to come and watch her.

 She is a master at the splits too.

 She can do the splits in both directions.

 And she can do great handstands.  No one else in the family can do any of these things.  Megan is very flexible.

Today I am thankful that
*Holly's surgery is behind us.  We first heard she might need the surgery over 2 years ago and now finally the surgery has been done and she is on the road to recovery.  The oral surgen did let us know that the chain could fall off and the surgery would need to be redone.  Let's hope that isn't the case for Holly.
*I got to visit my BYU roommate Carolyn and see her cute new house.  She recently moved close to me.
*My cousin has good doctors for her son, lots of loving family, and strong faith to support her during this time of trial in her family.

This week...

I took the little kids to the library, and they had fun playing with the puppets there.

We got a new camera and Holly had fun taking some close-up shots of her sisters.  This is Melissa making a heart with her hands.

And Megan making a heart, very cute!

Megan and Melissa looking super cute before church

We took down our Halloween decorations and now our mantle is very fun with Thanksgiving decorations.  I found these wooden pilgrims at a garage sale a few years ago.

The kids have already been busy making new Thanksgiving pictures for our kitchen wall.

 

We tried to take a Christmas picture of our kids this week.  This was a practice shot but is one of my favorites.

Today I am thankful for:
*Kids that happily play legos together, most of the time.  We have lots of legos so there are plenty for everybody.
*Inspiring church meetings.  Holly did a great job with her talk today and we had a return missionary from our ward speak.
*6 years in Washington.  I can't believe we have been here for 6 years already.  We live in a wonderful place, have some good friends, and have lots of family nearby.

The ten commandments with your fingers!

This year the primary children in our stake have been encouraged to learn the ten commandments.  Recently, the sister missionaries in our ward visited the primary and taught us how to memorize the ten commandments using our fingers.  It was genius!  I've never been able to recite all of them in order but now I can.  I thought I would share this. *these are not the sister missionaries in our ward but they are cute ladies just like these two.

Learning the  Ten Commandments with your fingers

1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Hold up one finger, pointing toward the sky. Explain that God wants us to worship only Him, the ONE God.

2 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.   Make cow head shape with your 3rd and 4th finger coming down to your thumb Explain that people used to carve false gods out of stone, but God tells us not to make any false gods.

3 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.   Hold three fingers up to your lips, instead of the usual one finger, and say, “SHHH.”

4 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Make two cow heads, put them together and make a church.

5 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be  long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Five fingers up and touch each one as you say "Honor thy father and mother"

6 Thou shalt not kill.  Hold up five fingers of left hand; point right index finger at left hand like a gun.

7 Thou shalt not commit adultery. Pointer and middle finger laying on bed made from palm of other hand.  Explain that husbands and wives should only date each other

8 Thou shalt not steal. Two hands face down with thumbs tucked under.  In the olden days you would get your thumbs cut off if you stole.

9 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. One hand up with thumb turned in, other hand talking to first hand.

10 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. All ten fingers reaching out and grabbing downward.

Halloween Fun

We continued the tradition of making Halloween cookies this year.  We made a few scarecrow cookies as seen on the pinterest website.  They turned out pretty cute, but the cookie hats tasted yucky the second day, they were soft, and wafer cookies are supposed to be crunchy.

Megan and Emily showing off some of their designs.

Melissa always makes such happy looking cookies.  I love those licorice smiles.

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 On Halloween I helped at both Melissa and Megan's class parties.  I was in charge of the ghost craft at Melissa's party.  They turned out cute but required hours of cutting on my part to get them ready. 

Here are two of the completed ghosts.  The kids glued on the faces and arms, and colored cheeks for the ghosts.  I cut out 46 of those ghost arms!!!

On Halloween night Emily chose to go trick or treating with some of her friends.  Emily dressed as Belle from Beauty and Beast.

 And Holly went with her friends dressed as a pack of peanut M&M's. 

I got to take Megan and Melissa around the neighborhood. Megan was a ladybug and Melissa was a peacock.

Nathan was hesitant about getting into costume but finally decided to be Iron Man.  However, he was too nervous to go up to anyone's door (even for candy) so I took him back home shortly.  These pictures are of Nathan and his cousin from a few weeks ago.

 He does make a nice looking Iron Man.

Today I am thankful for:

*friends to go trick or treating with.  They make the experience that much more fun. 

*cancelled playdates.  Today I was motivated to clean up my house really well because some new friends were coming over.  Turns out they were sick and I should have checked my email sooner.  But I ended up with a very clean house and two free hours which was great!

*you people who read my blog and comment.  It means a lot to me!  Thanks!